China Growth Hits 2025 Target Despite US Tariffs

China's economic growth in the fourth quarter was 4.5 percent, the Bureau of Statistics reported. That brought all of 2025 to an annual rate of 5 percent, topping a value of 140.2 trillion yuan (US$20 trillion), and meeting Chinese government's target for the year.

Exports, despite a year of tariff disputes with the US, comprised about a third of the growth.

In a roundup of 2025 economic data, the bureau reported that retail sales rose 3.6 percent, while industrial production was up 5.9 percent and fixed-asset investment dropped 3.8 percent. The production of industrial robots, new energy vehicles and semiconductors noticeably rose 28%, 25.1% and 10.9%.

Per-capita disposable income, a measure of consumer spending power, rose 4.3 percent for the year. Consumer prices, released earlier this month, were flat from a year earlier.

"We must adopt more proactive and effective macro policies and continue to expand domestic demand," the statistics bureau said in a statement.